Friday, January 11, 2008
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There's just something fascinating about a lighthouse. I saw this feature on the evening news recently about a photographer who has decided he loves the seagull perspective on lighthouses. In this little customized aircraft, he flies over Maine's many picturesque lighthouses, shooting unusual aerial photos of them. They're beautiful; they're even inspiring. He's seen them and photographed them in all kinds of settings: sunshine, clouds, storms, high tide, and low tide. He summarized what he's seen this way: "The lighthouse is always there, but everything else is changing."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Unpredictable Weather, the Unmoving Lighthouse."
I used to ask groups of teenagers to take four 3x5 cards and write the four most important things in their lives on those four cards. When they finished, I said, "OK, a disaster has just come into your life and you're going to lose one of the most important things in your life; except you're going to choose which one. Drop one card." After some thought, they dropped one.
I repeated that request another time, and again - this time with more resistance - they dropped one of the most important things in their life. Then, when they had only two cards, I said, "You can keep one, but only one. You're going to lose everything but the most important thing in your life. Drop one more card." That was pretty hard. But when everyone was finally down to just one card, I said, "You're holding a card that represents that most important thing in your life. There's one question I want you to answer about it, is it something you can lose?" If what, or who, matters most to us is something we can lose, we can never be secure; we can never be totally at peace.
We need, in essence, a lighthouse - something we can totally depend on when everything else is changing. Something, actually someone who is - as the photographer said about those lighthouses - "always there." If you've already lost some of the cards that mattered most to you in your life, then you know how much we need something that's unloseable, something unmoving that will stand the unpredictable weather because the weather in our world, even in our lives, is becoming more and more unpredictable.
The lighthouse that never moves is beautifully described in our word for today from the Word of God in Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." As relationships come and go, as jobs and houses and possessions come and go, as our health changes, our feelings, our family, Jesus Christ remains our personal lighthouse that never moves, never changes … if we know Him.
In the verses preceding this statement, God makes this promise, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Then it says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." From the nursery to the nursing home to the funeral home, a Savior, a friend you can totally, totally trust and you'll never, never lose Him. Jesus secured the possibility of this relationship when He died on the cross to pay that death penalty for the sinning we've done. This unloseable relationship becomes yours when you grab Jesus in total trust to remove the sin-wall between you and God forever.
As the storm clouds darken and the surf becomes more turbulent, you may be ready for this Savior-security. If you want to begin with Jesus, I would encourage you to tell Him that right now, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And then if you'd go to our website, you'd find a lot of help there in making sure you belong to Him. It's yoursforlife.net. Or you can call toll free and ask for the little booklet Yours For Life. The number is 877-741-1200.
It's the season of uncertain weather, but Jesus is that lighthouse that will be "always there" for you. You grab His hand and He will never let go.